Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute (IGMCRI) has set up a human milk bank under the Department of Paediatrics to ensure breast milk access to newborns who are unable to suckle-feed for various reasons.
According to IGMCRI, the human milk bank would provide critical support to newborns by ensuring availability of safe and nutritious breast milk, especially to those infants whose mothers are unable to produce adequate breast milk, who are very sick to breastfeed or, in situations where the newborns have lost their mothers.
Chief Minister N. Rangasamy formally opened the facility at the paediatric wing of the hospital.
C. Udayashankar, Director and Ramachandra V Bhat, Dean of IGMCRI, Joseph Rajesh, Medical Superintendent, Arun Kaliaperumal, Resident Medical Officer, paediatricians and hospital staff participated.
Dr. Udayashankar said the human milk bank, designed on the lines of a comprehensive lactation management centre, will operate on the lines of a blood bank, with emphasis on voluntary donation and adherence to safety principles in administering donor breast milk to a newborn.
The facility will collect breast milk from willing mothers of newborns within the hospital and lactating mothers in the community who volunteer for the purpose. The donors can be mothers attending well-baby clinics, those whose babies are in NICUs or who have lost their babies but are willing to donate milk, lactating staff in the hospital, and motivated mothers from the community
The World Health Organisation stipulates that exclusive breastfeeding should be practised for the first six months after birth. However, if a mother cannot feed her infant due to any reason, the mother’s own milk can be expressed manually or by using a pump and administered to the baby. If a mother’s own milk is unavailable, the better alternative would be to use pasteurised Human Donor Milk (pHDM).
Even in small quantities, pHDM has been shown to have a life-saving function in innumerable cases of low birth weight or sick preterm babies who, for various reasons, are deprived of mother’s breast milk. It is also proven to be a superior substitute to formula feeding/cow milk with long-term benefits in the wholesome development of the infant.
“Just as with a blood bank, a comprehensive health screening of willing donors is undertaken before collecting breast milk. Besides pasteurisation to decontaminate the milk, we also carry out a bacteriological culture before it goes to storage, and is used to feed a needy baby”, said C. Bharati, IGMCRI paediatrician.
The bank has deep freeze facility of minus 20 degree that can retain donor milk for up to about three months. A human milk analyser will regularly evaluate quality, especially the protein content and nutritive value.
“Lactating mothers need not worry over compromising the nutritive intake of their own baby when they donate. Healthy mothers can generate surplus volumes of breast milk... in fact, the more a motivated mother expresses, the more she increases her milk secretion because of the hormonal effect of prolactin,” Dr. Bharati said.
